My Love Affair With ArtScroll By Michael Feldstein | July 08, 2021
The two shuls I attend regularly each have the ArtScroll and Koren siddurim on their shelves. And I am able to choose which one I want to use. Invariably I will choose the ArtScroll siddur.
It’s not that there is anything I dislike about the Koren siddur. Having the Hebrew on the left side and the English on the right makes very good, logical sense. The off-white color of the pages is easy on the eyes. Rabbi Sacks’s introduction, commentary and translation are all superb. There are a couple of nice bells and whistles that are unique to the Koren siddur. And the hashkafa is certainly one with which I identify.
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Back in the mid-80’s we were moving from Moshav Elazar across the street (highway 60) to our new home in Efrat. So, we called one of the most venerable moving companies in Israel, Hovalot Ya’akovi, in business since 1950, just like me. On the phone, I asked to move the following Monday. The response? ‘No, you want to move on Tuesday, yom she’huchpal bo ‘ki tov!’ I was being informed that Tuesday’s the best day for new endeavors, because that day God said, ‘And it was good,’ twice. At that point, I was trying to remind myself who was the rabbi and who was the truckdriver. Of course, they may just have been fully booked on Monday, but I was convinced.
There is a psalm for every day of the week, known as
Shir Shel Yom. Wednesdayâs is Psalm 94, and it tells us, âFor the law shall return to righteousness, and all those of upright heart shall follow it.â
Implicit is the reality that the law is not always righteous. As the Torah warns us, sometimes there isÂ
avale bi-mishpat, or perversion in law. Norms are essential for any functional society, but obedience to the law is never a sufficient religious posture. The truly pious jurist is zealous not so much for enforcing the law as for protecting the integrity of the system so that it can be an effective tool for righteousness.Â